


Betrayed

by Pfain Ryder (Cat_Moon)



Category: Quantum Leap
Genre: F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-26
Updated: 2019-06-26
Packaged: 2020-05-20 05:53:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,908
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19370812
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cat_Moon/pseuds/Pfain%20Ryder
Summary: Tina is much more than a dumb blond.  In fact, she knows everything that goes on at the project, and definitely isn't above using it to her advantage.





	Betrayed

**Author's Note:**

> I admit, there were a lot of things in QL that bothered me. Which leads to lots of fanfic as I enjoyed explored those things. Another oldie from 1992, as I continue the huge task of posting all of my fanfic here on the archive.  
> Originally published in the fanzine, “Leaps From Hell.” 1994.

Tina studied the menu carefully, weighing the relative merits of the diet plate alongside the special of the day, a rich and fattening delight. One would make her feel better now, the other later. She chose the instant gratification, telling herself she deserved it...Lord knew she didn't get any of it in her life. Not that she really had to watch calories. Gooshie didn't care, and it wasn't like Al would notice a few extra pounds.

 

Al didn't notice much of anything these days.

 

One morning Tina fully expected to walk into the Project and find he'd moved his bed into the Imaging Chamber. She'd heard of living in the past, but... Sometimes though, it felt like they were all living in the past, in their own ways. Sam had created the Project, and it lived up to its purpose.

 

They were all people out of time. Tina was alternating between pretending an okay past still existed, and hope for the future. Gooshie, Gooshie was future-oriented all the way.

 

Al was in the past--you knew that much when you saw how he moped around the Project in the between-leap time, then showed up one morning in some outrageous out-dated outfit, and took himself into the I.C. with a big grin and exuberant greeting to everyone. It might be a baseball uniform over his neon clothes, or a Hawaiian shirt in the middle of January. Tina wondered if he'd ever told Sam about the ribbing he had to endure for months over the 'purse' he was sporting along with those disco clothes. Maybe she would tell one day; after all, it was her specialty...

 

Sam, at least he had the best reason of all for living in the past; he had no choice.

 

Tina peered across at Donna through her lashes. She was sipping her martini, menu on the table, closed. "I envy you."

 

Donna looked up, question in her eyes.

 

Tina smiled.  "It always takes me so long to make up my mind about what I want."

 

Donna smiled slightly, and shrugged. "I'm usually not very hungry anyway."

 

Hah! Tina could well imagine how many quarts of chocolate chocolate chip the woman went through in a week. The ones who claimed they ate like birds always had a hidden vice. The kind that hit late at night when you have no one for company but yourself. Besides, the poor girl wasn't even _getting any_. That Tina knew of.

 

The waiter came, taking their orders. Donna chose the grilled tuna sandwich and a second martini, Tina the Cordon Bleu.

 

Now there was an interesting thought, Donna Elesee cheating on her husband. It wasn't totally impossible, especially with him romping around in time with a license to shoot at will. Somehow though, Tina doubted she was. Yet.

 

Donna laced her fingers together and looked over — her sign she was ready to begin. They'd had these lunches once a month ever since Sam started leaping, so the routine was automatic now. Sometimes things did change though, even in Socorro, New Mexico. Mineral water had become one martini, which had become two and three. Casual, relaxed posture had turned into fingers laced in tension.

 

Tina was about to open her mouth when someone called her name. A man breezed by their table, greeting her with a slightly-more-than friendly kiss, and extracted a promise to get together for a day at the mall in Alamogordo, before continuing on his way. Tina giggled, watching him leave. Sure, he was gay, but the man had an ass worth keeping an eye on. And despite the image women liked to project of female bonding, she knew none as willing as him to listen to a late night pity party.

 

Tina grinned inwardly, seeing the tight smile on Donna's face. "He's a friend from the hair salon," she explained. "I think he's trying to do more than my hair." It was said with just a touch of innuendo to give more fuel to Donna's inaccurate suspicion.

 

Donna nodded knowingly. It was easy to read her thoughts, since Tina knew Donna's real opinion of her. There was pity too, in the eyes. It made Tina want to laugh. Donna really thought Al was a worse catch than Sam. No, that wasn't true--she wanted to believe it, tried very hard at it... but she didn't.

 

"What I really want to know," Donna began, getting down to business, "is why Sam was in this leap for so long. No one is saying anything, and I have the feeling all I'm getting from Al is a run-around."

 

Tina batted her sympathetic eyelashes, nodding solemnly. "I've always been straight with you, and I'm not about to stop now. Besides, we women gotta stick together, right?" she smiled reassuringly.

 

Donna managed a nod, downed her martini and signaled for another. Her third already and the lunch hadn't even arrived yet. She obviously knew this one was going to be tough.

 

"He was involved with the woman, Tamlyn." _Shacked up, actually._

 

Donna nodded, without shock. "For the entire three weeks?"

"Minus one day." _Slowing down, Sammy-boy._

 

There was a brief period of silence as Donna prepared her next question. "I'm confused. I know Sam was there to save Tamlyn from the killer, but why was he sent there so far in advance? Was there something he did, that he had to be around early for?"

 

 _Besides the obvious?_ Tina shook her head slowly. "Al said the only thing they could figure was it was a reward. A vacation." _Yes, Donna, there is a God, and He sent your husband into the arms of another woman._ So much for the sanctity of marriage in the eyes of the Lord.

 

The waiter temporarily interrupted the discussion, bringing their order. Donna didn't touch hers, but she did take a generous gulp of her drink.

 

"You ought to go easy on that stuff," Tina commented, not unkindly. "It won't help."

 

"You've had a lot of practice, telling Al," Donna spat. Yes, this one was going to be rough. Donna rarely lashed out with meanness.

 

"Maybe I shouldn't be telling you this--" Tina began.

 

"No!" Donna held out her hand. "I need to know, you know that."

 

Tina nodded, silently waiting for her to continue. The bulk of the prompting had to come from Donna herself.

 

"There's something else I don't know, isn't there? Al was having fits during those weeks, but every time I asked he'd say everything was fine."

 

"It was because Sam was refusing to leap."

 

Donna's eyes widened. "What?" she breathed.

 

"He wanted to stay there. With _her_." Tina had often wondered what Donna, who let so much go by, would consider betrayal. How much the woman would put up with, before wising up.

 

Donna's silence spoke of an education. Her eyes were on her food and she was picking at it, making a half-hearted attempt to pretend she wanted it.

 

"We all knew this day would come," Tina reminded her. "When he'd get tired of leaping around and want to stay somewhere." _But a woman wasn't in your scenario for that, was it?_

 

There was no reply. Tina dug into her meal, mulling over the turn of events. There seemed to be almost no end to his wife's selective blindness -- until today at least. Even so, Donna was still hopelessly lost to the real truth that screamed out to Tina – the one Tina was counting on.

 

Tina was a woman of honor, a rare thing in the world. Like Al, she'd never desert a friend in need. And there was no one more in need than Al Calavicci. He was being torn up inside, dying a little each day. He deserved at least a little compassion from a friend, and at best a whole lot more. But the whole lot more wasn't Tina's place to give. Someone else would have that job.

 

Someday, she and Gooshie hoped to start building a future together. It was her fought-for reward in life. If she could make the blind see, and she was having a lot of practice with Donna, Al would also get his.

 

Tina had begun her education early on. At first, she admitted with guilt, she'd been jealous. The minute Sam stepped into the Accelerator, she lost Al. He was always preoccupied, never there. So she lashed out by having an affair with Gooshie. She'd learned two important lessons from the experience. One, that Gooshie was really a very wonderful, warm person. The other, how much Al really needed her. It was so pitifully obvious when he actually ran out of the Imaging Chamber to take her phone call. That was unheard of.

 

Still, need wasn't the same as love.

 

Oddly, Al was never better to her in all their years together than he'd been since Sam leaped. As time went on, he was more concerned about doing his share to keep the relationship going, and he was running around less. The cheating had always been just a part of Al she knew she had to deal with. Except for once. There was one time when she was really worried, the only time they ever had trouble in their sex life because of another woman. She eventually found out who that other woman was. Sam Beckett.

 

Some people thought Tina just a dumb blond, but even if she had been, she'd still be able to add two plus two. So far though, only her and Gooshie were enlightened. Eventually, the scientist and the admiral would develop some brains. Tina would see to that personally if she had to. Because Sam would come home one day. She would turn Al over to him with her blessing, and be free to begin her life with Gooshie. That was the way it was going to be.

 

Tina came out of her thoughts as she realized it had been some time since Donna had said anything. Looking up, she found the woman staring into her drink. "Are you going to be all right?" she asked gently.

 

When Donna met her eyes, there was something new in them. "I just might." She stood up abruptly. "You know, I'm really not very hungry. I think I'm going back to the Project. I'll take care of the bill on the way out, and you can give me what you owe me later."

"A bunch of us girls are going over to the Sports Bar this Friday night, to see the male stripper show. Wanna come with us?" Tina offered.

 

"I think I will."

 

"Hang tough, kid," Tina told her.

 

"You too, Tina," Donna replied with a touch of a smile.

 

Tina watched her leave, then hastened to finish her lunch. Al was going to be busy in the I.C. for most of the day and if she hurried, she could spend some time with Gooshie before he returned.

 

She thought of the elusive Dr. Beckett. How, by his very absence, he could alter so many lives in his own present. If Tom and Donna weren't enough (oh, Tina knew about that, Al had to have _somebody_ to talk to) Sam was going to have quite a few unexpected repercussions to deal with when he returned. She couldn't really blame Sam though, and she did owe him something.

 

Besides--now there was a man with an ass worth keeping an eye on.

 

**the end**

5/2/92

 

**Author's Note:**

> Canon. You say "God" was leaping Sam around. You set it up a leap so that Sam is able to change history and get the love of his life back, and she ends up his wife. But then you have him fall in love with women in the leap, sleep with them, even have a kid by them... all apparently with a wife waiting at home. And what of all those who are victims to the whims of this fate? Are their lives really better for all this meddling? You'll see a lot of exploring of that topic in my QL fanfic. That's what makes it interesting.


End file.
